You are here

Congressman says US detention of Palestinian activist is “inhuman act”

Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan, left, congratulates Amer Othman Adi in early January after Adi’s deportation was postponed. The joy was shortlived as Adi was detained by US immigration authorities on 16 January, a setback Ryan called an “outrageous, inhuman act.” (via Facebook)

Activists are calling for urgent action to stop the deportation of Amer Othman Adi, a leader in the Palestinian American community.

Adi, a businessman who has lived in Youngstown, Ohio, for decades, is married to a US citizen and has four US-citizen daughters.

He was “inexplicably ripped away from his loved ones and detained the morning of 16 January while attending a scheduled meeting with Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” an action alert from the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) states.

Adi, who owns a convenience store and hookah bar, has also been a long-time activist with USPCN.

“Treated like an animal”

Adi was accompanied to the ICE meeting by a member of Congress who has supported his case, and who expressed outrage at his constituent’s detention.

His imminent deportation marked an unexpected and frightening turn in what had until recently been a relatively good news story.

USPCN had invited community members to a farewell gathering for Adi on 6 January when it appeared there was no hope his removal from his community of 30 years could be avoided.

But then USPCN announced that “in an incredible turn of events, massive community pressure and the important work of US Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio” had succeeded in winning a stay of Adi’s deportation and a review of his case.

But elation turned to anger and shock, following Adi’s detention during what was expected to be a routine meeting with immigration officials. The congressman had accompanied Adi to the meeting in a show of support.

1/ The arrest of Amer Othman is a shameful failure of justice. Treating an individual with no criminal record who poses zero flight risk like an animal flies in the face of American values. https://t.co/noVQKFgXwC

2/ The Administration didn’t even give him a chance to say goodbye to his family. I accompanied Amer to his meeting this AM in the hope that what is clear to the City of Youngstown would be clear to ICE: his case deserves a day in court & Amer is a valued member of our community.

3/ Instead, I witnessed firsthand the destructive consequences of President Trump’s willfully negligent immigration policies. A country that punishes those who wish to contribute will not find prosperity.

4/ We must do better. Not only for Amer, but for the countless other families in similar situations. For the 800,000 DREAMers who live in a state of limbo, wracked with fear and uncertainty, because of this Administration’s lack of empathy.

Ryan called the government’s decision to detain Adi “the most outrageous, inhuman act I’ve ever seen in my entire career.”

“To see a man who has an American wife, four American daughters, lifelong businessperson, pays taxes, job creator, passes out 300 turkeys on Thanksgiving to the poorest people in our community, get treated like an animal today is disgusting,” the congressman said.

“Spectacle”

“He had flights, he had his passport, he had an itinerary, all of which he submitted to the immigration service,” Ryan said. “And he would leave. If they said he couldn’t stay and he had to go, he would go. But instead, they make a spectacle out of it.”

“We were ready to go before,” Adi’s wife Fidaa told media. “We sold our house, we had plane tickets and were prepared to leave [for Amman, Jordan] when they said we did not have to. Then they do this. Are they deliberately trying to be cruel?”

While Ryan is a Democrat who has been critical of the administration’s high-profile immigration crackdown, WOSU noted that the local Republican Party vice chair, a Trump supporter, had also expressed her outrage at Adi’s detention:

I am all for appaled at what I just saw here at the Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) America should be better than this. My God I thought we were better than this.

Breaking up families

Adi is one of a number of longtime US residents who appear to be victims of the Trump administration’s determination to demonstrate its anti-immigrant bona fides.

On Monday – Martin Luther King Jr. Day – immigration authorities deported Jorge Garcia, who had been brought from Mexico to the US as a child 30 years ago, separating the 39-year-old from his wife and two children.

After years living in the U.S. for 30 years, a 39-year-old immigrant in metro Detroit was deported this morning to Mexico. Escorted by ICE agents, he said bye to wife and 2 kids before boarding. He was brought to US from Mexico when he was 10-yrs-old, too old to qualify for DACA: pic.twitter.com/KFPeweaMbG

On Tuesday, immigrant rights activist and father of four Jean Montrevil was deported to Haiti after living in the United States for more than 30 years.

That came just days after Trump reportedly referred to Haiti and African nations in a White House meeting with lawmakers as “shithole countries.”

And in Detroit, a church is offering sanctuary to Ded Rranxnurgaj, an immigrant from Albania who if deported would be separated from his wife who lives with multiple sclerosis and depends on him.

Flora Rranxnurgaj, wife of immigrant wanted for deportation by ICE, says she can’t survive without her husband taking care of her. She has multiple sclerosis. Central United Methodist Church says it is giving them sanctuary, first church to do so in Detroit publicly over past yr: pic.twitter.com/er8TGjPN2x

The US deportation machinery, which set new records during the Obama administration, has apparently kicked into even higher gear.

The San Francisco Chroniclereported Wednesday that the federal government is planning a massive sweep aiming to deport 1,500 undocumented persons in Northern California, “while sending a message that immigration policy will be enforced in the sanctuary state.”